Against this backdrop, Mo weaves presents three stories: that of two lovers, which dominates the novel, as well as a familial conflict and the relationship between two friends.

The Garlic Ballads tells the tale of a group of Chinese peasants whose lives are dependent upon selling their garlic crop when harvests exceed governmental estimates, officials curb the amount of garlic that can be brought to market, setting off a violent chain of events. When it comes to the plight of the farmer and the destitute, Mo Yan has experience in spades. They are, instead, people with their own shortcomings and prejudices, and by understanding that, Mo Yan shows the true power of an artist - rather than stoop for the easy message, he dives into the actuality of his characters to make them empathic and flawed, and allow us to root for them and cringe when we realize that they simply don't have the wisdom to always act correctly. In this novel, there is clearly an imbalance of power, and the exploitation of the poor and the powerless by the connected and wealthy, but the oppressed are hardly saints. Mo who is the Chinese Dickens cuts rapidly between locations and times, but never too rapidly, striking a perfect balance between forwarding the plot and drawing back to offer perspective on the goings on. The Garlic Ballads which is one of the eleven novels of Mo Yan can without exaggeration be called the Chinese equivalent of The Sound and the Fury or something more. The 2012 Nobel Laureate and his Masterpiece

Mo yan the garlic ballads